From left, Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector (formerly Ronnie Bennett) and Nedra Talley of the Ronettes, performing at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, March 12, 2007. (Robert Caplin/The New York Times)

Seasoned femme artists are front and centre at the 13th edition of Pop Montreal, with an action-packed line-up that includes former Ronettes front-woman Ronnie Spector, folky singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega and Grammy Award-winning rocker Sheryl Crow.

Much of the programming for this year’s Pop festival was announced Wednesday morning. The fest – one of the city’s most-buzzed-about alternative music happenings – takes place Sept. 17-21 this year and there will be a big pre-fest bash at Place Emilie-Gamelin Aug. 27 featuring Juno Award-winning, Polaris Prize-nominated aboriginal hip-hop dance trio A Tribe Called Red. At the event, Pop organizers will unveil the full line-up.

Pop creative director Dan Seligman said snaring Spector, Vega and Crow fits right in with his iconoclastic festival’s mandate.

“In pop-music culture, everything is about being young and ephemeral,” said Seligman. “Ronnie Spector, Suzanne Vega, Sherly Crow, they’re all women who’ve had hits and what we try to do is to bring in musicians who’ve had long careers and can talk about what it means to be an artist.”

The Spector concert Friday, Sept. 19 at the Rialto Theatre is already generating a lot of interest and is the perfect example of the fest’s penchant for booking older artists who’ve been around for ages and yet have always maintained their hip cachet. Spector first topped the charts in the early ’60s with the Ronettes, one of the era’s most famous girl groups, thanks to a series of Phil Spector-produced classics like Be My Baby, Baby, I Love You and Walking in the Rain.

Punk legends The Ramones cited her as a major influence and Joey Ramone went on to produce her 1999 album She Talks to Rainbows.

Her Pop show will be a trip back through her career, with lots of talking, video and, of course, performance of her best-known hits.

Vega – best-known for the 1987 hit Luka – will play the Ukrainian Federation on Hutchison on Sunday, Sept. 21. Vega just released her first new studio album in seven years. The Boston Globe called Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles “a marvel of intelligent lyrics and folkish experimental textures.”

Crow performs at the Olympia Theatre Sept. 19. Her most recent album, Feels Like Home, is her first country collection.

Seligman admitted some were surprised to see Pop including a mainstream artist like Crow but added: “Pop is pretty eclectic. We try to be inclusive and Sheryl Crow is a legitimate songwriter. And it’s an intimate show at the Olympia. A lot of younger kids feel she’s cool.”

Also coming to Pop: Gothic folk band Timber Timbre (Sept. 19 at Metropolis); DJ Food, DJ Cheeba & DJ Moneyshot present 3 Way Mix, a deconstruction – or is it reconstruction? – of the classic Beastie Boys’ album Paul’s Boutique (Sept. 19 at Club Soda); Animal Collective’s Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear brings his envelop-stretching fare to the Rialto Sept. 20; the Dot Wiggin Band plays Sala Rossa Sept. 20, a major event for fans of Wiggin’s previous band The Shaggs, who released the cult classic Philosophy of the World album in 1969.

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